6 Common Career Mistakes That Are Holding You Back

6 Common Career Mistakes That Are Holding You Back

You never want to damage your working life, but some of the decisions you make might kill your career. There are a lot of ways that people are committing career suicide without realizing the implications of their actions. Workers should be equipped with a list of all the major career mistakes you should avoid. To start, here are six major career mistakes that should be avoided at all costs.

1. Being a Sore Loser

Sometimes you don’t get what you want, in or out of the workplace. But in the workplace, it’s especially important that you keep your cool. Don’t expect sympathy if you blow up after getting passed over for that big job promotion. You’re in a professional environment, so act professionally even if you’re disappointed by something that happens. No one bats 1000. When you go back to the dugout don’t arrive with a sour attitude that will turn off your teammates unless you’re seeking a dim future for your career.

2. Not Taking Pride In Your Accomplishments

If you don’t take pride in what you’re doing, you won’t maintain the motivation to keep doing your best work possible. You may feel like you’re being modest, but modesty can go too far. It’s good to not brag excessively about your success to others, but please take pride when you deliver stellar work. Don’t shy away from congratulating yourself every once in a while for a job well done.

3. Not Demonstrating Pride In Your Accomplishments

You don’t want to show off too much, but you should certainly make it apparent to those you work with that you’re happy with what you’re doing so that they will be too. You don’t even need to talk about yourself, necessarily; pride can be demonstrated by nonverbal cues like just acting confident. That confidence will not only make you feel better about yourself, it will infect everyone you work with and convince them that you are that good.

4. Spelling Team With An “I”

Worst typo ever. Make sure to double-check that you’re getting the word “team” right, because the people around you at work, whether they be your employees or peers, inevitably play a big role in your success. You can’t do all the work; you need people to assist you with tasks you aren’t skilled at and collaborate with you when you need a partner to deliver the best possible product. So don’t shortchange your teammates; appreciate them fully for what they’re worth.

5. Not Seeking Other Opinions

A huge career mistake. Just like you should work well with people, you should also heed their advice even on things that you’re doing by yourself. Your boss might have a different idea of how to do something, or your co-workers could have tricks for improving something you’re spending your time on. You should even check in to make sure that you’re coming across the right way. Like we covered earlier, confidence is good, but you don’t want to rub people the wrong way. Ask a person you trust what your co-workers think of you, whether it be positive or negative.

6. Not Accepting Change

Change is unavoidable, and trying to avoid it is a big mistake for your career. It shouldn’t even be avoided in the first place; change should be embraced so that you can constantly stay ahead of the curve. You shouldn’t let a revised role or new job responsibilities hinder your future success. Be quick to adapt to change, even if the change might not be ideal. It’s probably coming no matter what, so fighting against it will only make you enemies. Besides, no matter how dire the change may seem, there are always ways to flip negatives into positives. Don’t just complain about the problems, start finding solutions.

Matt O'Keefe is a lifehacktivist and avid writer of stuff. That stuff includes posts for Lifehack, journalism for The Beat and blog content for businesses. Visit his portfolio and personal blog to learn more.